Daily News Digest – December 5, 2018

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1. One last time.

Today is a National Day of Mourning for former President George H.W. Bush.

The national memorial service is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Eastern / 10:00 a.m. Central at National Cathedral in Washington.

You can watch, well, most anywhere.

Former President George W. Bush will deliver the eulogy for his father.

President Trump said today the service “is not a funeral, this is a day of celebration for a great man who has led a long and distinguished life. He will be missed!”

Thousands of mourners continued to visit the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday to pay their respects. The line wrapped around 2nd Street and I’m told the wait was five hours or longer with temperatures in the 30s.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole paid his respects by being helped out of his wheelchair and issuing a military salute. If you haven’t seen that incredibly moving video, you really need to.

After the service, Bush’s casket will travel via railroad to Houston, Texas. Interestingly, Alabama’s Progress Rail had a role to play in building the special locomotive that will drive the president’s train, as YellowHammer’s Sean Ross reports.

Read more about the memorial service, who is attending, and how you can watch HERE.

2. Shelby speaks after Saudi briefing.

“Somebody should be punished.”

That’s what Sen. Richard Shelby told reporters after walking out of a closed-door briefing with CIA director Gina Haspel about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Shelby was one of a handful of Senators in the briefing, most of who came away convinced that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for the grisly killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said that if presented with the same evidence, a jury would convict MBS “in about 30 minutes.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham said there was no “smoking gun,” per se, but “a smoking saw,” referring to reports that Saudi agents used a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi after he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Graham said “you have to be willfully blind” not to conclude that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the crown prince’s command.

But, it’s not that easy, Shelby acknowledged.

“Now, the question is, how do you separate the Saudi crown prince and his group from the nation itself,” he said.

“This is conduct that none of us in America would approve of in any way.”

Corker also acknowledged that the United States had to be careful in not undermining American interests.

What are those interests? Keeping Iran in check. The Saudis are some of our strongest allies in pushing back against the Iranian regime as it tries to exert its influence in the Middle East.

That’s one reason Trump Administration officials are asking Senators not to pass a resolution curtailing U.S. backing for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

The Senate passed a procedural motion to allow debate on the bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said the House won’t pass it.

4. Skip Tucker: Nuts! D.T. has a little fun with his northern guest.

As promised, Skip Tucker has more tales of his protagonist “D.T.” from Walker County.

Having been offended by a condescending northern visitor, the imaginative D.T looked for ways to have a little good-natured country fun with his guest as they were walking through the woods.

Here’s an excerpt:

As the sun lowered and they hiked toward headquarters, he stopped suddenly, awestruck.

“Is that a wild pecan tree?” he asked softly, pointing though the failing light to a young cottonwood in a grove full of them. Flick started to snicker but was stopped by a wide smile that crossed D.T.’s face.

“Why, sure,” said D.T carefully. “Sure it is.”

As noted, it’s a stretch to put cottonwood tree and pecan tree in the same sentence, except to say one is no wise the other.

Our Hero couldn’t believe the smartest engineer in the world, replete with woodslore, hadn’t a clue. While it’s true a cottonwood bears drooping grapelike seedpod clusters, it’d take the wildest and weirdest flight of fancy, or a very peculiar mushroom, to see them as small green pecans.

“Really?” the man said. “You mean they grow wild out here and anyone can pick them, free?” D.T. paused to make sure he wasn’t the one about to be snookered and tooken, saw the poor man was in earnest, and breathed out a sigh of pure joy.

5. News Briefs.

President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller since his decision to plead guilty for lying to the FBI a year ago.

Flynn has provided so much information to the Russia investigation that prosecutors say he shouldn’t do any prison time, according to a court filing that describes Michael Flynn’s cooperation as “substantial.”

The filing provides the first details of Flynn’s assistance in the Russia investigation, including that he participated in 19 interviews with prosecutors and cooperated extensively in a separate and undisclosed criminal probe. But the filing’s lengthy redactions also underscore how much Mueller has yet to reveal.

Remember, Flynn spent a lot of time in Russia doing speaking engagements and other security work. That doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Trump, but he probably knows a lot about what the Russians could have been up to.

With so many new faces in the Alabama Legislature this coming year, the makeup of House and Senate Committees will likely be a lot different.

As previously noted, Republicans in the House will actually pick up seats on committees while Democrats will lose them.

In the Senate, there are a few plum committee chairmanships up for grabs.

Legislative leadership is being tight-lipped about assignments, but Inside Alabama Politics (subscription) reports today that Sen. Greg Albritton could be assuming the chairmanship of Finance & Taxation – General Fund after the retirement of Sen. Trip Pittman.